Home/News/2010/Albright Claims Diplomacy Rules Change as World Becomes More Complicated

Albright Claims Diplomacy Rules Change as World Becomes More Complicated

Thu,
10/21/2010 - 09:04am | By: Beth Taylor

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright delivered a lecture on the future
of NATO in Hattiesburg on Oct. 19.

As the global citizenry has moved from World Wars to Cold War and now to global terror,
it has become more segmented with non-state enemies, explained former Secretary of
State Madeleine K. Albright who was in Hattiesburg, Miss. Tuesday to deliver The University
of Southern Mississippi's second biennial Lt. Col. John H. Dale Sr. Distinguished
Lecture Series in International Security and Global Policy.

Her role as Chair of the Group of Experts on the NATO Strategic Concept was to review
the scope of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the 21st Century and work with other hand-picked experts to make recommendations for its next
Strategic Concept. Albright, who was the first female to serve as the United States
secretary of state, defines the world as complicated, and the mission of NATO as vital.

“Instead of the United States and Soviet Union as two super powers, nuclear powers,
facing each other; we have the United States as the most powerful country in the world
along with a lot of other countries that share in responsibility but with no nation
as a specific enemy,” she said. “The world is more disorganized, the rules are a little
harder and it's more complicated.”

For that reason, Albright sees the role of NATO as more important, especially in such
places as Afghanistan. While Afghanistan is not a member of NATO, it benefits from
the military strength and commitment of NATO members. As a result, Albright sees the
most powerful military alliance as now the foremost political alliance of democratic
countries.

“I had a lot to do with the expansion of NATO during my tenure as secretary of state
and am again playing a role in reshaping it in a post 9/11 world,” said Albright.

Based on the recommendations of Albright's panel, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen will author a first draft of the new Strategic Concept in time for the next
NATO Summit. Once the text has been approved by heads of state and governments, it
will become the official NATO Strategic Concept.

The Lt. Col. John H. Dale Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series is a venue for honoring
the late Southern Miss professor and head of the Department of Military Science. His
daughter, Southern Miss graduate and Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Beverly Dale, created
the lecture series to draw attention to his role as not only a military veteran who
served in two wars, but also a military leader who understood the need for occupying
armies to also serve as peacemakers who must gain the hearts and minds of the conquered.
She equates her father's vision with the mission of NATO.

The next installment of the Dale Distinguished Lecture Series is slated for 2012.